Can olive oil get any more organic, healthy and pure than the olive oil that comes from a family owned farm; where the olives are hand-picked and preservatives are strictly forbidden?
With a limited number of olive trees, in the area believed to be the most fertile in the world for olive growing – Koroni (in the prefect of Messenia, Peloponnese) – the ‘family hobby’, as Dimitris Apostolopoulos calls it, seems to attract more and more pure olive oil lovers in Australia.
“For me it’s a hobby, not a money making business,” says Dimitris matter-of-factly.
“It’s my own produce, it’s my own olive oil that I’m harvesting, which I inherited from my family. I’m just over 65 and I’m still planting trees there, and have plans to plant some more,” he tells Neos Kosmos.
For Dimitris Apostolopoulos of Melbourne, olives and olive oil making was a family tradition for centuries back. His father planted a few… then his mother planted some more.
Born in Koroni, 53 km south of Kalamata, Dimitris migrated to Australia as a 17-year-old. The love affair with olives, however, was already ingrained in his DNA. Every time Dimitris would visit his birthplace, new trees appeared in the surrounding areas.
“When we all left Koroni and came to Australia, there was no one to work on the trees. All that area was left open without any produce,” he explains.
“When I went back for the first time, in 1984, after being here for 18 years, I planted my first olive trees.
“The farm was just sitting idle, so I thought it would be a good idea to plant some olive trees. That’s how it all started.”
Since 2004, when a new family house was built by the Apostolopoulos family, the trips became more frequent.
“After retiring, I began going almost every year. Like the best saffron is in Kozani, with olives – it’s the Koroneiki type of olive that’s the most prized Greek olive variety for oil production.
“It’s a tiny fruit, but it produces a lot of oil – 3 to 4 kg of olives for 1 kg of oil. With kalamatiano olive oil, you need 7-8 kilos of olives to produce 1 kilo of oil. All our trees on the farm are Koroneiki – it gives the best product and it has been there for centuries. This variety grows well on mountain slopes and in dry areas, with a lot of sun and close to the sea. Its small fruit has a high ratio of skin to flesh, giving the oil its great aromatic qualities. That’s what helps the oil to be such a good quality,” Mr Apostolopoulos says.
Proud of the soil of his birthplace that gives some of the best olive oil in the world, he says it was his desire to introduce the pure Koroneiki olive oil that led him to start importing it to Australia.
To the numerous questions from surprised onlookers that he often gets – why did he go back to plant olive trees? – he answers:
“Look, I might be able to sell olive oil, but I am not an office worker. I still have plenty to live and to do many things in my life, and this is also very relaxing for both me and my wife,” he explains.
Starting from the 20 tins of his Greek family-made olive oil that Dimitris first imported to Australia, this year has marked the record in his family ‘hobby’, as over 240 tins of Apostolopoulos olive oil were imported.
“I have people here waiting for it, mainly Greeks, a few Aussies and some other nationalities; one restaurant buys it to prepare the food. With importing 50 tins at a time, every few weeks, the quantity is not big – so there are no problems with customs and administration.
“I wanted to introduce our olive oil to people here. It’s a good product, it’s healthy, it’s pure virgin olive oil. It’s my own olive oil, I don’t buy it from anyone. I have a couple of people who look after the farm for me if I am not there, they do the fertilizing if it needs to be done, the pruning. Then, the olives are taken to some of the village local presses to make olive oil. No chemicals, no preservatives are used. It’s 100 per cent pure virgin olive oil.”
To reveal the purity and the quality of the olive oil yourselves, when at the local market, Mr Apostolopoulos says the good quality olive oil has to be tangy on the throat.
“Also, if you rub it between your fingers and it doesn’t stain, it means there is no paint in it – sometimes sunflower oil is added, or some sort of food dye to give it a colour.”
To purchase Apostolopoulos family olive oil, made in Greece, contact Mr Dimitris Apostolopoulos on 0412 343 256.